Dark Castle
Dark Castle Status: Currently Existing Owner: Rumplestiltskin First Appearance: That Still Small Voice Latest Appearance: Murder Most Foul The Dark Castle is an Enchanted Forest location featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the fifth episode of Season 1. The Dark Castle is based on the Beast's Castle from the fairytale "Beauty and the Beast", and the Disney film Beauty and the Beast. Plot 'Before First Curse' In his castle, the dealer maker Rumplestiltskin is busy spinning straw into gold when an errand boy, Jiminy, hands him goods. For his trouble, Jiminy is given a golden thread, but Rumplestiltskin suspects he wants something else as well. Jiminy admits he wants to be free of his parents, Myrna and Martin, whose presence keeps him from being truly free. The Dark One offers him a potion, but points out that Jiminy has nothing to pay him with. He tells Jiminy to leave his parents for him as payment for the potion. Jiminy wonders what will become of them, but Rumplestiltskin assures they will be in safe hands, he takes the potion and departs. From the nearby land of Arendelle, Ingrid arrives, with her sisters Helga and Gerda, at the castle hoping for a way to be rid of her ice magic. Rumplestiltskin tries to interest her in harnessing her powers with magic lessons, but she stands by her original request. In exchange for giving Ingrid magic-concealing gloves and an urn, he desires the three ribbons the sisters are wearing on their wrists, which contain magic created by their sisterly love. Helga and Gerda refuse, believing the strength of their love for their sister is enough to protect her, but Ingrid insists on having the gloves and urn so her magic will never harm anyone. As Ingrid forfeits her ribbon, her sisters follow suit. Taking in Regina as a magic trainee, Rumplestiltskin is surprised to learn she has an older half-sister named Zelena. He teaches her magic as well, and after the lesson, Zelena bakes him his favorite meat-pie. However, Rumplestiltskin informs her that he cannot stay since Regina still needs training. She reacts with resentment, believing herself much more powerful than her half-sister, though Rumplestiltskin coyly points out that her jealousy is literally turning her skin green. Shocked, Zelena takes a look in the mirror to see a patch of green skin on her neck. Despite excelling in magic, Regina still desires to be with her deceased lover, Daniel, though Rumplestiltskin warns that "dead is dead". While heartbroken, Jefferson, who had been in the room doing business with Rumplestiltskin, offers her a chance to remedy that disappointment with the services of a “wizard” who has the power to bring back the dead. Eagerly, she accepts and gives Jefferson a royal passport to roam the kingdom freely. In a deal with Sir Maurice to stop the ogres from invading his land, Rumplestiltskin asks for his daughter, Belle, to leave her home and become a servant at his castle for an eternity, which she agrees to fulfill. Belle is thrown in the dungeon of Rumplestiltskin's castle. He lists all of Belle's tasks and when he jokes about one of the duties, she accidentally drops a tea cup and chips it. After becoming Rumplestiltskin's servant, Belle misses her family and spends nights in the dungeon crying. One night, Rumplestiltskin conjures a pillow for her, which she thanks him for the gesture so she can sleep more comfortably, but he replies it's for muffling her noisy cries. Suddenly, a loud thud is heard, and both rush to see a hooded thief stealing a wand. The thief fires an arrow from his bow, which has a reputation for never missing. Eventually, the arrow hits Rumplestiltskin, but since he is immortal, it has no effect. He imprisons the thief and tortures him on a daily basis. Belle, feeling sorry for the man, frees him while Rumplestiltskin is away. The thief escapes with the wand; prompting Rumplestiltskin to haul Belle along as he tracks down the man. With Belle's persuasion, he lets the thief go and they return to the castle. Before heading off to bed, he gifts her a library room since she loves reading. Though Rumplestiltskin attempts to hide his kind intentions, Belle is pleased and reaffirms he does have goodness inside of him. After Belle finishes with the laundry and polishing the silver, Rumplestiltskin returns home with a wailing baby for her to look after. She is dismayed to learn he stole the child from his parents, and even more horrified when Rumplestiltskin admits he has sinister intentions for the baby later at sundown. With a good story from a book, Belle calms down the baby and begins plotting a way to save him before Rumplestiltskin's return. At one point, she wanders into the castle tower, where she finds an incantation written in fairy language that used to summon The Black Fairy. As soon as Belle is finished translating it, Rumplestiltskin appears to claim it as well as the baby, before locking her in the tower as he leaves. The Blue Fairy, on her way in to the castle after sensing the Dark One use the incantation, hears Belle's cries for help and flies to her. Unable to help with her own magic, The Blue Fairy sends Belle to rescue the child instead. Following the death of her husband, King Leopold, Regina makes a deal with Rumplestiltskin to have a magical disguise, which will enable her to kill Snow White. Rumplestiltskin instructs her to say his name when she wants the disguise taken off, and though she ends up calling him twice, he never responds. After the Queen tries to execute her own plan, she angrily storms into his castle, demanding to be returned to her former self. Frustrated, she admits he is right about how the commoners feel about her, and that they will never love her. He asks what she will do now, and with a tone of bitterness, Regina vows to punish them all. Only then does Rumplestiltskin reverse the spell, and Regina can see her own reflection again. She smiles wickedly, commenting the Queen is dead, and "Long live The Evil Queen". Rumplestiltskin returns from the Idyllic Garden to catch Belle examining one of his swords in the castle cabinet. Although he did say that she could look around, this was to test how she would react. Engrossed in his castle collections, Belle reasons she was curious since he never talks about where the items came from. Furthermore, it's her dream to see the world, which is what he gets to do. She inquiries about Camelot, and though Rumplestiltskin never actually went to Camelot, he chucks her the "souvenir" he got from Guinevere, the magic gauntlet, which can locate one's greatest weakness. As he states, the weakness is usually a thing the person loves most. After serving him tea, Belle theorizes he collects things because of having a hole in his heart. Instead, Rumplestiltskin whisks her off to laundry duty. When he goes to check up on Belle, she is gone. Then he finds out that Cruella De Vil, Ursula, and Maleficent kidnapped Belle to force him to give up the magic gauntlet that he brought from Camelot. Surprisingly he gives the gauntlet to them. Later, he retrieves the gauntlet from the trio because the thing they have done was not even a deal. Cruella suggests he join them in their fight to defeat heroes, but Rumplestiltskin boasts that he always wins and doesn't need them to do it. While cleaning the castle drapes, Belle questions Rumplestiltskin about why he spins straw into gold so much. Rumplestiltskin claims it helps him forget what he once lost. Attempting to pull open the drapes, she accidentally falls from the ladder, to which he catches her. Later, Belle asks about some children's clothing she found in the castle, and he admits those were his son's outfits. Rumplestiltskin puts on a strong front when grilled about why he wanted her with him, to which Belle believes he isn't cruel, but simply lonely. He sends Belle into town to fetch straw; expecting her to never return. While on the road to town, she is manipulated by the Queen into attempting true love's kiss on Rumplestiltskin to revert him to human. On her return, Belle gives Rumplestiltskin a kiss of true love, but he angrily berates her; believing she is conspiring with the Queen to take away his powers. She is thrown into the dungeon, and later kicked out of the castle by Rumplestiltskin. Before leaving, Belle attests that he's a coward to believe she doesn't truly love him and will live to regret his actions. A short time later, the Queen lies to Rumplestiltskin about Belle's tragic fate after she supposedly returned home, was shunned by her family, and eventually committed suicide. Despairing over her death, Rumplestiltskin places his only memento of Belle, the chipped cup, on a pedestal. Snow White, having taken Rumplestiltskin's potion to erase her heartache over Prince Charming, becomes a ruthless and stingy person who is hell-bent on murdering the Queen. One of her dwarf friends, Grumpy, drags her back to Rumplestiltskin's castle hoping the wizard can undo the magic, but he cannot. Instead, Rumplestiltskin gives Snow White a bow and arrow as well as a map to track down and kill the Queen. After she leaves, Prince Charming arrives demanding Snow White's whereabouts, and gives Rumplestiltskin his cloak as payment for the information. From the cloak, Rumplestiltskin takes a strand of Prince Charming's hair and combines it with Snow White's to form a bottle of true love. 'After First Curse' Following a mishap that causes Neal to fall through a portal with a gunshot wound, he lands in the Enchanted Forest and is found by Mulan, Aurora, and Prince Phillip, who bring him back to a palace and tends to his injuries. After recovery, Neal, with Mulan's help, travels to his father's old castle in an attempt to learn the fate of Emma and Henry. Once inside, the castle looks to be ravaged and severely plundered, though Neal can tell someone has been living in it. Suddenly, they are surprised by a man, Robin Hood, aiming an arrow their way, and claims the castle is his. Neal explains the castle once belonged to the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin, and he is his son, Baelfire. Robin Hood decides to trust Neal's words and believes no one would make a claim unless it were true. Additionally, he mentions being indebted to Rumplestiltskin for sparing his life in the past. Neal looks around the castle for an unsuspecting magical item that may help to find Emma and Henry, and picks up his father's old walking stick. He grasps the item and swings it around; prompting a hidden door to appear. Robin Hood expresses astonishment as he once tried to wield the stick before, and nothing ever happened. Through Neal's words, he shares knowledge of his father's enchantment of the walking stick with blood magic that only allows the caster or those of his blood to be able to use it. From within the door, Neal discovers a crystal ball. Reluctantly, he agrees magic is the only thing that can help him now, and attempts to get the ball to activate by touching it, which causes no change. Mulan suggests to think about how he feels about Emma, and that will guide him to see her. Neal follows her instructions, and the crystal ball shows him an image of Emma in Neverland. 'After Third Curse' After using sand on a cursed Belle, Mr. Gold is transported into her Dream World, not knowing the sand has also affected Belle's unborn child, who appears to him as a grown man allegedly named Morpheus. This stranger brings Mr. Gold to a Dream World manifestation of Rumplestiltskin's castle, where Belle is reliving her days as the Dark One's servant. The castle is darker and more grim, and when Belle sees Mr. Gold, she is only able to see him as the scaly-skinned Rumplestiltskin. She apologizes for not having his tea ready, and goes to fetch it. Mr. Gold vows to help Belle by making her fall in love with him again, to which Morpheus sets a time limit for him to complete this task or Belle will return to the Netherworld permanently. He wins Belle over in a dance, and as her perception of him changes, the castle's surroundings shift as well. Mr. Gold tells her about the son he lost because of his own selfishness, and that he'd be the best man he can be for her. The couple kiss, with the power of true love briefly lifting the Dark One's curse, but then, Belle pulls away after regaining her memories. Mr. Gold suggests they can be together now since their child is no longer in danger, but Belle declines the offer, believing their union has been riddled with too much broken promises and pain. With the time limit up, Morpheus reappears to congratulate Belle for not believing in her husband's lies, and because she passed the test, he can wake her with true love's kiss. Morpheus reveals himself as their unborn child, and warns Belle not to let Mr. Gold destroy them as he destroyed his last family. With that, Morpheus kisses Belle on her forehead, taking her away from the Dream World's castle and back to the real world. Inhabitants *Belle *Rumplestiltskin Visitors *Anna *The Blue Fairy *Emma Swan *The Evil Queen *Gaston *Grumpy *Helga *Hook *Ingrid *Jiminy Cricket *Mad Hatter *Mulan *Neal Cassidy *Prince Charming *Queen Gerda *Robert *Robin Hood *Snow White Trivia Production Notes= *The computer-generated imagery model created for the Dark Castle great hall, foyer, and vault is recycled and reused for the Netherworld in "Child of the Moon" and "Into the Deep", and the Rear Reading Room in the New York Public Library in "Only You". This can easily be seen from the identical design of the columns and archways. *The establishing shot of the Dark Castle in "Changelings" is stock footage from Belle's Dream World in "The Savior. |-|Other Notes= FILMING LOCATIONS *The interior scenes in Rumplestiltskin's great hall, are filmed against a green-screen in The Bridge Studios, the Canadian film studio where Once Upon a Time films. *The flashback scenes outside the castle in "Heroes and Villains" were filmed in Burnaby's Central Park, on the boundary beside Swangard Stadium.